Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Saint Rubenio]

30 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

Gives more insight into his ideals, politics and ideologies. How he deals with political bullshit in the court and how he wants reforms and is even a big fan of Edel's reforms, but his kingdom's instability and then Edel's war just slowed everything down. Later on he drops a line where he says without the war they could've worked together to reform the continent, but Edel does what Edel usually does, conquer. This game makes it absurdly clear that Edel wants to conquer to reform, and considers other countries illegitimate offsprings of Adrestia. No Slytherin involved.

I didn't even play Dimitri's route yet, but even in Scarlet Blaze Dimitri get's quite a bit of insight.

I see.

Quote

Lol no. He is still a mess, just not an edgy uncontrolled one.

A certain scene at the end of the demo comes to mind

Ehhhh I'd say if he really is still kind of a mess, that's a pretty bad example of it. He looks devastated to have to do that, and the guy was a cackling mad villain who appears to have forced his hand by being a massive dick. Dimitri doesn't come across as particularly brutal here, but rather a generally upstanding and reasonable guy who'd only do something like this as a last resort if he absolutely had to. This is something I could picture any of the more forgettable FE lords doing, if pushed enough.

Just how I feel from watching this specific scene out of context, though. For all I know the man was feeding kitties and adopting orphans before Dimitri came for his head over past grudges.

Also I find it hilariously silly that he's still halfway through his smug battle quote and he and his horse are already flying all over the place while he continues to calmly taunt Dimitri.

Edited July 2, 2022 by Saint Rubenio

[ping]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ehhhh I'd say if he really is still kind of a mess, that's a pretty bad example of it. He looks devastated to have to do that, and the guy was a cackling mad villain who appears to have forced his hand by being a massive dick. Dimitri doesn't come across as particularly brutal here, but rather a generally upstanding and reasonable guy who'd only do something like this as a last resort if he absolutely had to. This is something I could picture any of the more forgettable FE lords doing, if pushed enough.

Silly Rubenio, did you not see his portrait? He looks evil, therefore he is evil. The metaphysics are sound, and simple.

Looking at the scene knowing hardly any context, I think I partly disagree...? I'd speculate that most FE lords in a similar situation would show their moral excellence by showing mercy to somebody who (probably) doesn't deserve it. Evil dastards are generally killed in combat, not captured and later executed. I'm thinking of Ludveck (Nasty McEvilface from Radiant Dawn's part 2) as one as the very few antagonists that are captured, and I don't think he was about to be executed, neither before nor after the whole Lucia scene. He just doesn't appear again after part 2 ends.

That said, I agree that this scene doesn't make Dimitri look brutal. If anything, it seems to push him into a similar direction as SD!Marth and RD!Elincia (heck, that's why Ludveck sprung to mind) in their "I am a prince before I am a son or brother" (change gender and relation as appropriate) themes. Him being his own executioner just makes the scene more... metal, I guess. More dramatic. Plus, as a Darkest Dungeon enjoyer, I have to bring up Renaud de Chátillon, Crusader and a generally nasty piece of work, who allegedly was beheaded by Saladin himself - and Saladin isn't exactly known to have been a bloodthirsty or even just unreasonable man.

[Lightcosmo]

8 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

It's always the same with them: they act like she's 100% right and the other characters are the worst people in the world, but when they see someone doing the same thing against her they get upset and claim that no one is 100% right in the game. They refuse to look at her faults.

I can't claim to have gone in depth with her character cause i honestly didn't care enough to, but i can agree that way too many people try to find "reasons" that she has a "morale highground" all of the time. 

Come to think of it, it's like the opposite situation with P4 Celica! XD

2 hours ago, WraithReborn said:

A dramatization of Shrimp-kun’s reaction to lightcomso and Twilit’s comments on the Cold Steel series:

Uh... Wraith? you got my username wrong.

3 hours ago, Shrimpy said:

There is this weird idea that FE fans dislike female lords because they are female not because of their action or writing.

Does that mean the fandom is unsure about Edelgard, then? lmao.

[Armagon]

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Bolded- yikes for the director.

Yeah, North Korea being North Korea has kidnapped multiple people from both South Korea and Japan in the past. Crazy part is you didn't even have to be living in either country, you could've been in Europe for whatever reason and there'd still be a chance North Korea would decide you belonged to them now.

In the case of the director and his wife were both kidnapped from while in Hong Kong because the North wanted to boost it's non-existent film industry. They are one of the lucky ones that managed to escape tho, they secretly recorded their conversations with Kim-Jong il (mad respect for this bravery btw) to prove they didn't just defect from the South and later they convinced the government to allow them travel to Austria to find financing for a Ghengis Khan movie, where they met a journalist and, after convincing their North Korean bodyguards to leave the room, spilled the beans and were able to escape to the US.

But like I said, they are part of the lucky ones who managed to escape. It's already extremely difficult to escape North Korea and the few times that country did release the kidnapped, it's usually because it was a group, like that time they hijacked an airplane and even then, they didn't return everybody onboard. If it's an individual kidnapped, they probably aren't being seen again. At least from what I've read about it, usually it's the children of the abducted that were born in North Korea that are allowed to visit their families and many stay with them (and there's at least one case where an abducted couple that managed to escape saw the NK government release their children about a year later).

 

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Hopefully the implementation of their love in gameplay is successful (Metacritic places it at 75 for critic reviews, so it probably can't be terrible).

I did see some user reviews (on Steam) say that the gameplay can kind get repetitive at times but at this rate, I've already played a few crossover SRPGs so I'm not too fazed haha.

7 minutes ago, ping said:

I'm thinking of Ludveck (Nasty McEvilface from Radiant Dawn's part 2) as one as the very few antagonists that are captured, and I don't think he was about to be executed, neither before nor after the whole Lucia scene. He just doesn't appear again after part 2 ends

Still a bit upset he just dipped after that. Last we see is him gloating about Elincia having to watch her friend die and generally just thinking his plan is a success either way. We never got to see him react to Ike and friends going "lol". I wanted to see the comeuppance damnit 

[Lightcosmo]

11 minutes ago, ping said:

Silly Rubenio, did you not see his portrait? He looks evil, therefore he is evil. The metaphysics are sound, and simple.

It's like villians and generally being hideous looking, haha.

[Interdimensional Observer]

This is getting an unexpected Western release @Armagon. Not saying you'd be interested, but, it is another kaiju game, more repping for the genre.

[Saint Rubenio]

12 minutes ago, ping said:

Silly Rubenio, did you not see his portrait? He looks evil, therefore he is evil. The metaphysics are sound, and simple.

Just now, lightcosmo said:

It's like villians and generally being hideous looking, haha.

Stuff like this is why I always really appreciate when games make good guys ugly. It's something you see rarely, too rarely. And ugly women, just in general. Friend or foe, women in fiction just about always have to be super models. It's boring. Throw more ugly people in there, what's so wrong with that? Are ugly people not people too?

12 minutes ago, ping said:

Looking at the scene knowing hardly any context, I think I partly disagree...? I'd speculate that most FE lords in a similar situation would show their moral excellence by showing mercy to somebody who (probably) doesn't deserve it. Evil dastards are generally killed in combat, not captured and later executed. I'm thinking of Ludveck (Nasty McEvilface from Radiant Dawn's part 2) as one as the very few antagonists that are captured, and I don't think he was about to be executed, neither before nor after the whole Lucia scene. He just doesn't appear again after part 2 ends.

In an earlier draft of my post (lol that makes it sound so much grander than it is), I had intended to mention that he wasn't quite a complete goodie-two-shoes. Those would've tried to avoid executing altogether. That being said, he's still only a step above a complete goodie-two-shoes. The guy constantly repeating "YOU'RE A MONSTER" falls pretty flat when Dimitri's in no way acting or behaving like a monster, and the guy is a one-dimensional villain.

12 minutes ago, ping said:

That said, I agree that this scene doesn't make Dimitri look brutal. If anything, it seems to push him into a similar direction as SD!Marth and RD!Elincia (heck, that's why Ludveck sprung to mind) in their "I am a prince before I am a son or brother" (change gender and relation as appropriate) themes. Him being his own executioner just makes the scene more... metal, I guess. More dramatic. Plus, as a Darkest Dungeon enjoyer, I have to bring up Renaud de Chátillon, Crusader and a generally nasty piece of work, who allegedly was beheaded by Saladin himself - and Saladin isn't exactly known to have been a bloodthirsty or even just unreasonable man.

Yeah, exactly. Dimitri comes across here as very milquetoast. Not saying that's a bad or good thing, I'm just struggling to see where the "mess" is at all. Come back to me when he engages in blatant political corruption like Reese does in Berwick Saga.

11 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

Uh... Wraith? you got my username wrong.

Forgive him. He cannot read so well anymore in his old age.

13 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Still a bit upset he just dipped after that. Last we see is him gloating about Elincia having to watch her friend die and generally just thinking his plan is a success either way. We never got to see him react to Ike and friends going "lol". I wanted to see the comeuppance damnit 

Yeah, I agree. Getting at least one short cutscene of Ludveck reacting to his plans falling apart due to an Ike Ex Machina would've served as nice closure for the character.

[Armagon]

9 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This is getting an unexpected Western release @Armagon. Not saying you'd be interested, but, it is another kaiju game, more repping for the genre.

Haha I did see this. It is specifically Ultraman tho, a property I'm only familiar with based on sheer legacy value alone. Won't get this tbh but it is neat.

[Armagon]

JoJo Part 6 Part 2 on September 1st.

That's actually not that far away but man, amazing how Netflix killed the hype. Had the show released normally, we would be close more than halfway done I think.

[Sidereal Wraith]

49 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

Uh... Wraith? you got my username wrong.

31 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Forgive him. He cannot read so well anymore in his old age.

Actually I’m dyslexic so that probably accounts for it. WHAT’S THIS!?!? CHILDREN PLAYING…ON MY LAWN!?!?

*Wraith raises his fist and with an oath tries to get off his porch to chase away the odious children*

[Lightcosmo]

35 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Stuff like this is why I always really appreciate when games make good guys ugly. It's something you see rarely, too rarely. And ugly women, just in general. Friend or foe, women in fiction just about always have to be super models. It's boring. Throw more ugly people in there, what's so wrong with that? Are ugly people not people too?

I'm gonna be 100% honest and it might seem harsh: I would rather look at something nice than ugly. Why would you design something that people more than likely won't like?

Shit, when they design "ugly" characters like Arden, you see how the devs think of them, useless waste.

35 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Forgive him. He cannot read so well anymore in his old age.

I suppose this is fair enough. XD

Just now, WraithReborn said:

Actually I’m dyslexic so that probably accounts for it. WHAT’S THIS!?!? CHILDREN PLAYING…ON MY LAWN!?!?

*Wraith raises his fist and with an oath tries to get off his porch to chase away the odious children*

Midlife crisis?

[Lightcosmo]

Of course i don't really pay attention to male character design either way since they are most the time too "simple" or just plain boring, whereas female characters they can do so many unique things with. *shrugs*

Edited July 2, 2022 by lightcosmo

[Sidereal Wraith]

40 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Stuff like this is why I always really appreciate when games make good guys ugly. It's something you see rarely, too rarely. And ugly women, just in general. Friend or foe, women in fiction just about always have to be super models. It's boring. Throw more ugly people in there, what's so wrong with that? Are ugly people not people too?

 

[Sidereal Wraith]

9 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

Midlife crisis?

 

[Shrimpica]

Finished Scarlet blaze...

Well, that was anti climatic lol

Late game is honestly a mess.

In general Scarlet Blaze feels like CF + Politics + Agartha because fans wanted to Edel to fight Agartha

But the Agarthan stuff here makes it all a mess

Edited July 2, 2022 by Shrimpy

[Saint Rubenio]

11 minutes ago, WraithReborn said:

Actually I’m dyslexic so that probably accounts for it. WHAT’S THIS!?!? CHILDREN PLAYING…ON MY LAWN!?!?

*Wraith raises his fist and with an oath tries to get off his porch to chase away the odious children*

Oh.

...Well. Sorry.

11 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

I'm gonna be 100% honest and it might seem harsh: I would rather look at something nice than ugly. Why would you design something that people more than likely won't like?

Shit, when they design "ugly" characters like Arden, you see how the devs think of them, useless waste.

That's... certainly a way to look at it.

8 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

Of course i don't really pay attention to male character design either way since they are most the time too "simple" or just plain boring, whereas female characters they can do so many unique things with. *shrugs*

...What? I guess it depends where you look, because from where I'm standing, it seems more like it's the complete opposite. Male characters are more often allowed to be older, scruffier, uglier - or at least not conventionally pretty, have different bodyforms, get creative with facial hair... Lots of different details to play with. Female characters, on the other hand, tend to be constrained by the obsession with having all of them be hot and young. That's not to say female characters have no variety ever - again, it depends where you look. But well, they tend to have less variety on average, as far as I can tell.

Just now, Shrimpy said:

Finished Scarlet blaze...

Well, that was anti climatic lol

Unfortunately, that's what I've heard about all the endings in the game.

2 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

Late game is honestly a mess.

In general Scarlet Blaze feels like CF + Politics + Agartha because fans wanted to Edel to fight Agartha

But the Agarthan stuff here makes it all a mess

Oh, dear... That sounds eerily close to the problems with Three Houses. I wanted to think they'd learned some lessons...

[Shrimpica]

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh, dear... That sounds eerily close to the problems with Three Houses. I wanted to think they'd learned some lessons...

There's a reason why there's was a lore route and it wasn't Edelgard's route in 3Houses.

Here they decided to shove that stuff in Edel's route except...it comes off as rushed and weird. And a pace breaker.

And then the route ends while war is still going on.

Shez is a wasted opportunity. Fun character, but they do nothing with her

[Saint Rubenio]

3 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

There's a reason why there's was a lore route and it wasn't Edelgard's route in 3Houses.

Here they decided to shove that stuff in Edel's route except...it comes off as rushed and weird. And a pace breaker.

And then the route ends while war is still going on.

Shez is a wasted opportunity. Fun character, but they do nothing with her

Nooooooooooooo stop, it's the same thing all over again! And this time it doesn't even have Hanneman! Staaaaph!!

[Armagon]

17 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

But the Agarthan stuff here makes it all a mess

The evil cult stuff detrimentally affecting the story? In my Fire Emblem game? It's more likely than you think.

[Saint Rubenio]

The cult is only good in VS2 because it allows Karajan to exist.

Oh wait he's not actually a cult-kun despite looking like a cult-kun

[Shrimpica]

7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Nooooooooooooo stop, it's the same thing all over again! And this time it doesn't even have Hanneman! Staaaaph!!

it's not the same.

It's kinda worse.

The name - 3 Hopes - is a lie. This is the dark timeline more like.

Also the Edel and Claude keep saying "Rhea bad, church corrupt, Kingdom bla bla bla", while Rhea helped Edelgard deal with corruption with the condition she gets to punch Thales in the face, didn't do anything when Edelgard started reforming, only when Edelgard declared war on her, and the church is generally shown in a more positive light and on the defending side while Edel and Claude go "THEY SHIT" and just attack.

Gaslighting Fodlan edition.

6 minutes ago, Armagon said:

The evil cult stuff detrimentally affecting the story? In my Fire Emblem game? It's more likely than you think.

Thing is

Shez, our MC, is an Agarthan. They could've tried to do something with her like show that not all Agarthan are bad and some are trying to live normally...

But nah, she amnesia, Agartha is typical cult-kun that keep calling everyone (and not just Dragons) beasts, and is just a mess.

Her backstory? Her mother? How she lived outside and not in Dubstep centeral? Nothing, nada.

Just a mini chapter about Arval, that's it.

[Armagon]

7 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

Shez, our MC, is an Agarthan. They could've tried to do something with her like show that not all Agarthan are bad and some are trying to live normally..

If I had a nickel for every Fire Emblem game where a character is from the evil cult to show they're not all evil, only for the game to just not deliver on that, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, it's just weird that it's happened twice.

The other is Zeke from TearRing Saga, who is from the evil cult but he's like the only one who isn't maniacally cackling.....but he betrays the party anyways so I just offed him in his recruitment chapter.

[Saint Rubenio]

2 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

it's not the same.

It's kinda worse.

......

Oh, dear.

You know? I have to confess, I've been getting this feeling myself. Just yesterday I had kind of an epiphany where it just randomly hit me "oh shit... Three Houses actually kinda sounds more appealing than Three Hopes in a number of ways." I wanted to believe I was just being too negative, but uh... Oof.

2 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

The name - 3 Hopes - is a lie. This is the dark timeline more like.

Also the Edel and Claude keep saying "Rhea bad, church corrupt, Kingdom bla bla bla", while Rhea helped Edelgard deal with corruption with the condition she gets to punch Thales in the face, didn't do anything when Edelgard started reforming, only when Edelgard declared war on her, and the church is generally shown in a more positive light and on the defending side while Edel and Claude go "THEY SHIT" and just attack.

Gaslighting Fodlan edition.

Well... Shit.

2 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

Thing is

Shez, our MC, is an Agarthan. They could've tried to do something with her like show that not all Agarthan are bad and some are trying to live normally...

But nah, she amnesia, Agartha is typical cult-kun that keep calling everyone (and not just Dragons) beasts, and is just a mess.

Her backstory? Her mother? How she lived outside and not in Dubstep centeral? Nothing, nada.

Just a mini chapter about Arval, that's it.

Shez could've been Owen. Too bad.

[Shrimpica]

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I wanted to believe I was just being too negative

tbf, i am bit negative too atm because the ending was

"That's it?"

That and Edel pretty much lost all my sympathy points ngl

The game has alot going for it. Fun gameplay, interesting politics, other sides of the character explored, etc.

It's just come late game and...yeah.

And from what i read all routes are like that

I will until i play all routes until i fully judge, but this isn't reassuring xD

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Shez could've been Owen. Too bad.

I was thinking more Salem, but yes

Edited July 2, 2022 by Shrimpy

[Saint Rubenio]

2 minutes ago, Shrimpy said:

tbf, i am bit negative too atm because the ending was

"That's it?"

That and Edel pretty much lost all my sympathy points ngl

The game has alot going for it. Fun gameplay, interesting politics, other sides of the character explored, etc.

It's just come late game and...yeah.

And from what i read all routes are like that

I will until i play all routes until i fully judge, but this isn't reassuring xD

Meh... That's too bad. I'll keep waiting and seeing. They probably won't expand the routes or give them better conclusions, but maybe some of the more odd unplayables will be addressed and I'll be more inclined to give it a shot for myself.